Who do the British seemingly hate Q Magazine?

I loved this mag and bout every issue from 1989 to 2002. I really thought it was funny as a motherfucker, and printed stuff like a story on the narcorrido subset of tejano music, among hundreds of other cool shit. I often thought "man, I'd love to work for an American version of Q."

then Dennis Publishing comes along with an American version, called Blender, run by a Q alum (who incidentally, was editor of Q for almost as short a time as he was for Spin earlier this year). I got a job with Blender about a year after it launched.

the englishman referenced above cited those rules often— these amounted to the correct way to review music, and the fact that American pubs did not adhere to those rules was why American music pubs (and implicitly Americans) were, to use his terminology, "shit."

Of course, those rules were often ignored in his writing and in that of his english cronies, whom he invariably would let get away with bloody ax murder. In retrospect, I don't see that those rules affected the reviews that I read in Q.

As my hatred for this man intensified, I was no longer able to enjoy Q. But I gotta say that I think that for a long time, they've been stuck in Oasis/Blur/ this year's guitar band fronted by a pouty dude k-hole. perhaps its because 1995/Cool Britannia was the last time English people could feel as if they were on the vanguard of culture that the world was intrigued by. You could that Spice Girls were like that, but they, like a lot of subsequent phenoms, are not exactly the kinda stuff that I think Q feels they can fully endorse.

they do get very excited by hip-hop customized for their own culture, cf the Streets, Lady Sov and so on. but I can tell you as someone who has edited copy from a lot of Q contributors, those guys DO NOT GET, or are at least uncomfortable, with American hip-hop. those guys get guitar bands, dance msuic and goofy pop music that is part of their heritage.

is this defensive nativistism? I don't know.

what I said is that when they try, it seems that english writers (again, this is both on based on raw copy and the finished product) don't seem to be able to adequately address hip-hop. many Americans wouldn't be able to address chanson or gamelan, but there isn't a huge effort to do so anyway.

I'm curious: are you from the UK or US? you express yourself in a way that is very hard for me to place.

(uh huh uh huh)

-- Geir Hongro (geirhon...), March 18th, 2005.

-- The Lex (alex.macpherso...), October 6th, 2006.

That wasn't you I saw bopping away to well-known black artists Christina Aguilera and Annie From Norway last night then? ;-)

Cut the dose, Marcello!

-- Marcello Carlin (marcellocarli...), Today. (later) (link) (admin) (userip)

It's only fair to point out that the "Geir" post quoted above was not actually posted by Geir at all.

-- Geir Hongro (geirhon...), March 18th, 2005.

Wasn't that the original raison d'etre of Q, i.e a British version of Rolling Stone. Obviously didn't last long.

those guys DO NOT GET, or are at least uncomfortable, with American hip-hop

But their interpretation of hip-hop is just as valid as an American's take on brit-pop. Just becaused it seems 'wrong' to someone steeped in the culture doesn't mean they don't get it or it's wrong per-se.

and frankly, Brit-pop and its variants seem to be easily grasped by Americans, since the genre is based on '60s British rock and pop, which is essentially music that never went away and was emphasized as the common currency —the signal achievement of western culture, rockism, etc etc—in both countries and all over the world. lots and lots of crits I know are very hung up on brit-pop.

But that's not to say it's impossible. Knickerbockers did some wonderful stuff in the mid 60s in mock British accent, while The Records' 70s powerpop sounded just as right with their mock American accents.

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I'm banning Marcello cos firstly because I was pretty sickened by the chest-thumping and general foul behaviour on the hip-hop thread. I fucking hated this and am guilty for just discovering the general unpleasantness therein (two people alerted me). Other people may have been stirring the shit and I'll be checking them out too.

Also, and just as importantly, I'm sick of him nitpicking blissblogger. What the fuck is your problem with Simon Marcello? Grow up. What it boils down to is this. If I'm going to have a forum in which either Reynolds or Carlin are going to feel comfortable, then it's a fucking no-brainer.

Banning people who don't match his quasi-intelligent musings on pop is just one step away from ethnic cleansing, no?

more insanity from Q magazine, some right turkeys in this list. Q magazine have just set the benchmark for the worst end of year list of 2009.

via
http://www.soundopinions.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=22173

Q Top 50 Albums 2009:

50) Further Complications - Jarvis Cocker
49) Together Through Life - Bob Dylan
48) My Way - Ian Brown
47) The Liberty of Norton Folgate - Madness
46) True Romance - Golden Silvers
45) Outer South - Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band
44) Which Bitch? - The View
43) Imidiwan: Companions - Tinariwen
42) Mariachi El Bronx - Mariachi El Bronx
41) Two Dancers - Wild Beasts
40) 3 Words - Cheryl Cole
39) Primary Colours - The Horrors
38) Truelove's Gutter - Richard Hawley
37) Tarot Sport - Fuck Buttons
36) The Eternal - Sonic Youth
35) Backspacer - Pearl Jam
34) To Lose My Life... - White Lies
33) Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors
32) Sunny Side Up - Paolo Nutini
31) Only Revelations - Biffy Clyro
30) La Roux - La Roux
29) Wilco (The Album) - Wilco
28) Working On A Dream - Bruce Springsteen
27) Horehound - Dead Weather
26) Two Suns - Bat For Lashes
25) The First Day of Spring - Noah and The Whale
24) The Ecstatic - Mos Def
23) Invaders May Die - The Prodigy
22) Oh My God, Charlie Darwin - The Low Anthem
21) Kings and Queens - Jamie T
20) Fever Ray - Fever Ray
19) Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
18) The Boy Who Knew Too Much - Mika
17) 21st Century Breakdown - Green Day
16) Walking On A Dream - Empire of The Sun
15) Tongue N' Cheek - Dizzee Rascal
14) What Will Be - Devendra Banhart
13) Veckatimeist - Grizzly Bear
12) Everything Is New - Jack Penate
11) Kingdom of Rust - Doves
10) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix
09) No Line On The Horizon - U2
08) It's Not Me, It's You - Lily Allen
07) The Resistance - Muse
06) Humbug - Arctic Monkeys
05) Journal For Plague Lovers - Manic Street Preachers
04) Merriweather Post Pavillion - Animal Collective
03) It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
02) Lungs - Florence and The Machine
01) West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - Kasabian

lol, all lists are terrible - at least they get people to pay for theirs

23) Invaders May Die - The Prodigy

Make a Song Title More Reasonable

What an awful, awful winner.

i gets worse...

Kasabian luv in at the NME this week
http://www.nme.com/magazine

that Krissi Murison has shifted NME even closer to the Q mainstream

rewind...it gets worse

40) 3 Words - Cheryl Cole

How the hell did this get in there? And nine places above Dylan?!

no idea, however there is evidence in that Q list that Q writers are clearly tone deaf

huh, aren't there 2009 albums that haven't had their promos distributed yet? Being a few months early with decade lists is kinda understandable, but this...

also, Mika has a new album? Who knew. Is it a major flop or have I just successfully blocked him out?

also, Mika has a new album? Who knew. Is it a major flop or have I just successfully blocked him out?

you obviously don't read Britain's most read music mag - OMM, as Mika was on their front cover a few months back

Martian's been limbering up for this moment for the last couple of months, like Gary Neville on the Anfield touchline.

i honestly had no idea that half of that list were even still making music, let alone releasing albums this year.

cheryl cole, wtf.

Q magazine is so establishment / mainstream, most 2009 mainstream albums have been released, and the ones yet to be released seem rather ordinary

upcoming mainstream releases
http://www.albumvote.co.uk/albums/prerel.aspx